


Goddess Mother

by OracleHylia



Series: Power of the Seven [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Ganondorf - Freeform, Magical Pregnancy, Sheikah Culture, Unplanned Pregnancy, Yiga Clan - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:14:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27396292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OracleHylia/pseuds/OracleHylia
Summary: Zelda is a dedicated businesswoman, who unlike her friend isn't interested in having a nice little family and a husband. unfortunately, fate gets other ideas when she gets involved in shady business with a suspicious mayor and accidentally sets off an age-old prophecy which she is the key to; well. .. . her and the little ones. (Cross-posted on Fanfiction.net)
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Power of the Seven [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001388
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	1. Week 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this here because of Fanfiction.net's problems. Even so, I always wanted to put this up here, now I just have an excuse to do it.

People parted around Zelda as she stalked through the halls, they recognized the look of righteous fury on her face. It was what she usually wore when facing down with greedy corporate businessmen during a meeting, today, however; it was being used for another person entirely.

She made her way into the office of her longtime friend: Eliza Nikos. Eliza looked up at her and grinned as she stormed into the room and slammed the door shut, not once taking her gaze off her target.

"I know what you're here about Zellie! Come on, spill the juicy details, how was that night?"

Earlier in the week, her friend had finally gotten her to go to a nightclub to 'let loose and have some real fun.' The night started out all right(if not a bit awkward) watched the entertainment, danced a bit, but as the night went on the details became fuzzy, she didn't recall much, but she remembers enough to know that she'd acted ridiculous.

To many, it seemed as though she and Eliza were as day and night, but she often thought that their contrasting attributes are what made them such good friends. Though on occasion Eliza would get some crazy idea, such as; finding her true love in a rowdy bar in a single night.

"I'm never doing that again Eliza, I made a complete fool of myself! I probably looked like some slutty stripper. What if someone had recognized me? It wouldn't just ruin my reputation but my mother's too!"

Zelda's mother; Lyla Lorule, was the corporate shareholder of Lorule Industries, both feared and respected by others in the business world. She could be forward and rather stern, but did right by women everywhere, encouraging them to be leaders and setting a stalwart example. Zelda was incredibly proud to be a part of the Onward Leaders Society or OLS, dedicated to helping young women reach their potential and become powerful leaders in their own right.

OLS had been formed by her mother's many greats grandmother and had grown to become what Lorule Industries was today.

Lyla Lorule had raised her daughter to be her successor since she was old enough to read, after Zelda had graduated from college at the age of sixteen, she immediately got hired at L.I. and worked her way up. People often said she was the next Lyla Lorule, this pleased her immensely. So, naturally so was very concerned about maintaining her reputation.

Eliza sighed, "You worry too much, nobody recognized you, I'm sure of it. People only see what they want to see you know; and most don't expect to see Zelda Lorule at a popular nightclub."

That was true enough, if someone had recognized her it would have been all over the news in minutes. She didn't have much of public life so seeing her out and about was a rare opportunity.

"Still, it could have become a disaster and you know how I feel about frivolous parties."

Eliza rolled her eyes, "Oh I know how you feel about them, but that isn't going to stop me from trying! Working 24/7 isn't healthy, besides, don't you ever want more out of your life?"

Zelda gave her a look, "What more could I possibly want? I have a successful life, a good education, a well-paying job that I enjoy, and my mother's approval."

Eliza threw up her hands in exasperation, "C'mon girl! I'm talking about the Hylian dream! Getting hitched to a handsome, dreamy man and raising kids in a cute country ranch."

Zelda almost scoffed at that, It was very unrealistic to think that some perfect man would just come falling out of the sky into someone's life and have a beautiful relationship forever. Most men she knew seemed to think they were the goddesses gift to the world, acting as if everything belonged to them. (including women)

Her friend perked up, "As for me, I got my eye on a few promising boys."

Of course, she did, not only was Eliza a charmer but attractive as well with her heart-shaped face, smooth caramel skin, dark ringlets, and bright golden eyes, she was the very picture of a man's dream. Zelda knew she was also good looking with her porcelain skin, shining golden hair, and sapphire blue eyes, but it wasn't something she liked to flaunt.

Zelda looked at her sternly before her face melted into concern. "You're going to get yourself hurt someday El. I'll always be your friend but I wish you would be more careful with your affections."

Her friend sighed, "Alright, alright, I'll be careful but only for you."

"Thank You."

Their bond went very deep, Zelda considered Eliza to be the sister she never had, she was certain Eliza felt the same way. They had been childhood friends, their mothers knew each other, so they often played together while their mothers had a meeting of some sort. Eliza was the only real friend she'd had growing up.

Just then, the door slammed open, and in stumbled Milo; her Sheikah secretary. He was fumbling with several files and documents in his arms, along with the lunch she'd ordered.

"M-miss Lorule! I've been looking everywhere for you! I couldn't find you in the office and I just didn't want to leave these important things there. S-someone could steal them!"

Zelda shook her head in bemusement, Milo meant well, but he could be a little overbearing sometimes and was a bit of a coward when it came to real-world situations.

Eliza chuckled, "You sure you got that Milo?"

"O-oh its fine, r-really."

"Anyways, how's your new song coming along?"

He grinned shyly, "Well I think it might be my best piece yet, it sounds so poetic."

Milo played the accordion and wrote songs in his spare time. He had a part-time where he played at a restaurant.

After a bit more of Milo's fussing, Zelda headed to her office to work for the rest of the day.

She left the building later that night and was heading toward her car to drive home. Walking along the street she could hear shouting ahead, where a large group of people were protesting against Mayor Dragmire and his new policies. Zelda understood their anger, she had met him at his election, and after talking with him only a short time she decided she hated the arrogant, rude man. How anyone ever voted for him was a mystery to her.

She attempted to push her way through the crowd blocking her path when a woman caught her arm.

"Look! It's Zelda Lorule!"

People immediately began swarming her, asking about what she thought of Ganondorf Dragmire and his restrictive policies. She started to feel overwhelmed until the woman who had caught her earlier looked up at her, eyes begging.

"Please, please, help us" she croaked, tears streaming down her face, "Dragmire is targeting my family, he is threatening to kill my husband if we don't do as she says."

Two you boys clung desperately to their mother, the fear visible on their faces. Zelda felt a burst of anger toward Ganondorf, how dare he go controlling peoples lives like that. Mind made up, she shouted for the crowd's attention and began speaking.

"I am Zelda Lorule, the future leader of Lorule industries; our company is centered around helping people reach their fullest potential by offering necessary funds, education, and jobs. To ensure they become the creator of their own lives."

She paused for effect, gazing at everyone, noticing the news cameras were trained on her.

"Ganondorf Dragmire goes against everything we stand for, not just as a company, but as a people. He wields his power unjustly, wrongly taking control of people's lives. I ask you, does this sound like something a true mayor would do? I assure you; Lorule Industries will never side with him as long as I am here, we will continue to encourage our programs to all those who are in need."

After she finished speaking, the reporters began clamoring around her, asking if she was taking a stand against Dragmire. She weaved her way through the crowd, escaping the reporters, to head to her car and drive home.

When she arrived and prepared to turn in for the night, the consequences of what she'd just done started to seep through her brain. Whenever evidence was brought up against Ganondorf, terrible things happened to them and suddenly charges were dropped.

No one had ever found evidence to prove it was him of course, but the circumstances were too great, she may even be next on his list.

She drifted into an uneasy sleep, mind filled with worry.


	2. Week 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These first few chapters are slow, but I promise it gets better. Also, I realized I spelled Lyla's name wrong in the later chapters. *facepalm*

This was it. The call to Lyla Lorule's office. She'd been filled with nervous anticipation all week, waiting to see how her mother would react to her statement about Dragmire. She tried to look confident as she walked to her destination. She dressed nicely for almost every occasion, but today she was especially formal in her custom made suit.

As she walked in she was greeted by her mother's stern face behind her desk. she gestured for Zelda to pull up a chair in front of her desk and cleared her throat.

"So; you were heading home, ran into a mob, and allowed yourself to be pressured into making a biased statement, openly stating hostility towards mayor Dragmire and cost the rest of Lorule Industries with your stance against him."

Her mother's composed figure made it seem like she was calm, but seeing the fire in her eyes; Zelda knew she was far from it.

"Do you realize the position you've put us in? You threw L.I. directly into the crossfire and for what? A mob of uncontrolled protestors?"

Lyla's voice grew sharp as she went on reprimanding her, Zelda felt like a little girl again; being caught doing something naughty.

"I'm going to have to spend the entire month trying to smooth over your mistake with the public."

Zelda frowned at hearing this, "how can you be so against this? I know my methods were. .. . uncouth, but Dragmire is a serious problem that we need to deal with-"

"Think about what you are saying, what evidence do you have that he's done anything? You hardly know Ganondorf, certainly not enough to make judgments on a whim."

Zelda couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed, "Why are you so against this? You're never so supportive of men like him."

Her mother landed her piercing gaze on her and stood up abruptly. "Ganondorf has been nothing but useful, he might not be the most friendly, but he certainly has helped us as we helped him during his campaign. He always repays his debts, our company has benefitted greatly from his generous donations. Stock market prices are up and many divisions are expanding."

Her eyes narrowed, " despite what you may think, Dragmire ; unlike other men, doesn't seek to put us down, but to raise us up. His beneficial partnership with Lorule Industries is proof of that."

Zelda sagged in defeat, her mother did make some fair points, maybe she had been wrong about him.

Lyla had calmed herself, features becoming impassive again after her outburst.

She sighed, "I fear I have been far too lenient on you Zelda, I held you in such high esteem that I forgot you're still very young and new to the ways of the world."

Zelda blinked. High esteem? Despite the situation she couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride, her mother wasn't one to hand out praise lightly. Or at all.

Lyla then straightened up her expression, becoming serious. "Due to your recent actions I've come to realize that you are far too biased in matters involving the mayor, because of this I've decided that you will continue your work at home rather than your office. Your workload will be lightened somewhat to ensure you bring your full effort to each task."

She gazed at her sternly, "I want you to take this time to think about your actions and re-evaluate yourself. It will be better that you stay away from L.I. for the time being, especially since Mayor Dragmire will be visiting us in the coming months for business."

Zelda sat in complete shock, this was not how she expected this meeting to go, she flew to her feet, "What?!" Overwhelmed she ran a hand through her hair.

"This is going to far! I make one mistake and now been reduced to hiding away in my house with lightwork because of it!"

She breathed in deeply, trying to compose herself and remain professional.

"Mrs. Lorule please, I ask you to reconsider this course of action, despite my earlier transgression I am perfectly capable of working cooperatively with Mayor Dragmire as-"

"My word is final; Zelda, as your boss I am ordering that you will have nothing to do with Ganondorf Dragmire. You now may leave."

Her heart was filled with hurt as she submissively left the room and headed back to her office.

"Well, well, well, looks like the crown princess has been dethroned."

Zelda froze, then quickly whipped around to see the arrogant, smirking face of Hilda Lorule.

She stiffened and put her business face on immediately. She and Hilda had been rivals for as long as she could remember, from the days when she would scribble all over her worksheets in kindergarten, till college where Hilda would manipulate her professors into giving her unfair deadlines.

She and Hilda were second cousins, though she was loathe to admit she had any relation to that vixen, she was a Lorule as well naturally was in line to inherit part of Lorule Industries.

Zelda spoke to her icily, "If you're wondering why you never get promoted Hilda; it's because you spend your time dealing in idle gossip like a senile old lady."

Some of the women working nearby gasped at such a proclamation. Hilda's face colored with anger before she smoothed over her expression looking in control again. She stood up from her desk and got into Zelda's face.

"You can't act like you're above the rest of us anymore Zellie." She spoke in a sing-song voice, "Anyone who can't respect their partner and/or mayor deserves to work at home as a little housewife."

The accusation stung and it took a lot not to flinch, normally she didn't let Hilda's jealous accusations bother her, but her pride and position had recently taken a hard beating.

Zelda was thankful for the timely arrival of Eliza, who cheekily informed Hilda Eliza's assistant had 'accidently' deleted several of Hilda's work files on her laptop, much to Zelda's relief. She then busted her friend out before a stormy Hilda could unleash her wrath with them.

She sat dejectedly in her leather chair, gazing around her office as though it was the last time she would ever see it. She had begun packing her things in silence, absentmindedly deciding what she needed to bring with her.

Eliza placed a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, are you okay?"

She sighed, "I don't know El, everything I've ever worked for is crumbling at my feet, all I let myself get dragged into something that was none of my business. Mother always to say I was too softhearted when I was younger, and that if I continued to be like that, someone would take advantage of my kindness."

She let out a humorless laugh, "I guess she was right, but it wasn't the person I thought it would be."

Seeing her friend about to cry, Eliza wrapped an arm around her comfortingly.

"Don't let your mom get you down, she's probably just stressed about working with ol' carrot top. Ms. Lorule will bounce back in a couple of weeks and you'll be working in the office again."

She gave a weak smile to thank her. Eliza seemed to grow somber for a moment.

"To tell you the truth, I don't you were wrong about Dragmire, there's just something- off about him. When we were at his campaign party and he walked into the room and looked at me, I just had this terrible feeling and the hairs on my neck stood up and I. . .."

She wrapped her arms around herself fearfully.

"You know, my great grandmother used to tell me stories about a Gerudo man like him and that he was an omen of dark times. . .. ah! Forget I said anything. Just getting lost in memories thats all."

Eliza quickly stood up and turned to face her, returning to her usual chipper self.

"C'mon Zel, let's go to Cucco-fil-a, I promise I won't bring my boyfriend this time."

Zelda let an easy smile come across her face, Eliza was a good friend, even if she could be a bit of a flirt at times. And yet as they went out, she couldn't stop thinking about Eliza's ominous words concerning Ganondorf. ...

000000000000000000000000000000000

He shifted his position from his perch in the shadows, yet never took his eyes off her. He knew he should continue scanning the area, but it was the only chance he would ever have to see her smile. After a moment more of gazing upon her face, he shook himself and continued his watch.

They would take action soon, he was certain of that, he didn't know how they knew, he wasn't sure she had them himself but they would know soon. ...

There. A middle-aged woman pushed a grocery cart full of fresh produce to her minivan. He swiftly lept off his perch and landed silently, then continued stealthily toward the middle-aged women.

So; the game had begun. He let a smirk stretch across his face and initiated his attack.

000000000000000000000000000000000

The servant could feel chills running up his spine, this meant the master was about to do something, sometimes that wasn't always a good thing. He gulped nervously, "M-master you c-called for me?"

The master's cruel laugh echoed through the dark, cavernous room, "Yes, it appears the wait is finally over, they have finally made their move."

He stood there in nervous anticipation, waiting for his master to say something, finally, his dark silhouette shifted and he began to speak.

"Initiate the movement, begin persuasive measures, she must join us and eliminate the Seven."

The servant dared to speak up, "B-but master, what if she doesn't have them?"

The master's blood-red eyes burned in the darkness.

"Whether she has them or not is of no consequence, she will either join us. .. . or die."


	3. Week 3

She felt a bit off when she woke up that morning, sitting up in bed, she placed a hand over her midsection. There was a strange pressure in her stomach, 'hmm, it's probably just that time of the month, haven't had one in a while.'

Shrugging it off, she continued through her usual morning routine, preparing for another day of work at home. It had been almost a week since her demotion, Eliza assured her that wasn't what it was, but she knew better.

She stared at her ragged expression in the mirror, she'd been having trouble sleeping recently. 'Why do I even bother? It's not like their here to see me, or rather, do I do this just to feel like I'm in control.'

Just then she heard the doorbell ring, she allowed herself a small smile knowing who it was. She quickly left the master bathroom and headed down the long hallway, then proceeded to head down the extravagant staircase into the spacious foyer.

As she opened the door, she was greeted by the kind face of her neighbor Mrs. Gangreen. had lived out in Faron Province as long as anyone could remember, she was an herbalist, an excellent cook, and a widow.

Zelda helped the woman with her bags into the kitchen as she directed. She then had Zelda sit down at the table as she began to pull out various ingredients to cook with.

Zelda sighed good naturally, "You really didn't have to this, I feel bad making you think you have to walk all the way here every day just to cook for me."

Mrs. Gangreen waved her away, "Nonsense, I always enjoy cooking for other people my dear, besides, it's been so lonely in the little cottage since Tom passed away."

Tom; her late husband, who had died a year prior was quite the amiable old man, always shared a good joke, and seemed to know almost everyone in the province. Zelda admitted he was one of the few men she was ever fond of.

"Alright m'dear, breakfast is served." She ambled over to the table and began setting down plates of food. There was always a lot of variety and in large amounts, she wondered how the old woman had enough room in her fridge for leftovers.

She then set down a heaping platter of steaming, delectable food in front of her. The best thing about her cooking was that it was incredibly healthy, but still delicious. never used to cook this much but she suspected she was trying to occupy her time in her husband's absence. And ever since a couple of weeks ago, had began cooking for her like this.

She couldn't bear refusing to eat all the food on her plate after seeing the forlorn look on the woman's face after she objected once. She began eating then made a face, her neighbor noticed, "What is it?" She looked horrified for a moment, "It's not the food is it!?"

Zelda raised her hands quickly, "No, no, it's wonderful, it's just it has a strange metallic taste to it."

When the old woman raised an eyebrow questioningly she sighed, exasperated.

"Since a few days ago my food has had that strange taste to it. I can think of no other explanation other than I'm getting sick."

Her neighbor immediately began too look concerned.

"Well, why didn't you say so m'dear! Come, we must send you to bed straight away, I have just the right remedy for-"

"Oh no! It's not like that! I assure you I'm perfectly fine, besides, I need to get back to work."

She huffed, "Nonsense, you've been working the entire time you were here, take a break from it. You've probably become ill from overworking yourself."

Zelda sighed, there was no reasoning with her when she was like this. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll go outside for a bit, but I'm not laying in bed like some invalid."

looked relieved, "Yes, I do believe some fresh air will do you good, it is a lovely morning."

She went and hurried to get her coat before her neighbor changed her mind. She took a deep breath of early autumn air, looking around at the rows of vast trees that surrounded the fields around her home. As she began to walk down her driveway and out the gates, she took notice of the beautiful fall colors decorating the landscape and watched the leaves drift downward.

She shook herself out of dreamland, it wasn't like her to daze off like that, then again, it had been such a long time since she'd been outside for pleasure only.

She headed out and took a path around her property, gazing contentedly at the forest next to her and the silhouette of a man ambling through them. Wait, what? She abruptly turned around and peered into the thicket of trees.

There was no logical reason for anyone to be here, there was nothing else around for miles, not even a hiking trail. So what was that man doing here? She squared her shoulders and headed after him, no man had the right to wander around her land without her permission and she was going to find out his motives were one way or another.

She called out to him and he swerved around; eyes flashing in the darkness of the woods. Due to the hood, he was wearing, it was difficult to discern his features.

As soon as he saw her approaching, he turned and ran deeper into the grove, irritated; Zelda followed him, weaving around the undergrowth, unfortunately, he was gaining distance. She ran into an overgrown path within the trees. She halted in her chase, bewildered by the sight of it. This shouldn't be here, no one else in living memory has ever dwelled here.

She furrowed her brow, if that was the case, the path must've been incredibly old. She looked around, curses, she'd lost sight of him and now she was lost. She peered up at the sky hoping to determine the time by seeing the sun's height in the sky, unfortunately, the thick cluster of leaves snd branches blocked her vision.

She sighed and turned to gaze at the worn path suspiciously. It was the only hope she had of getting out of the forest and into civilization (however slim that might be)

She began heading down the path walking for an indecipherable amount of time, it could've been hours or minutes before she finally reached what appeared to be a small town in the middle of the woods. It seemed as though it were a relic from an era long past, with it being half covered in growth and the small buildings wilted in their archaic style. Indeed, she thought as she tentatively began to enter the ruin, all of these structures look well over 400 years old, perhaps even older.

There was almost certainly no one here, as all she could hear were the sounds of the forest around her. And yet, for some reason she felt drawn to the center, where a dilapidated fountain lay, covered in moss.

A sense of deja vu struck her, and though she was confused by it, she relied on the feeling as it guided her to a structure with a high roof and three tall spires.

Looking at it, she guessed it might have been a church or a temple at some point. She froze at the sound of a soft voice singing within the spired building, both relief and wariness filled her at once. Relief at the fact she wasn't alone in the wilderness and wariness at the fact this person could be a deranged hermit.

Still, she decided to take her chances and headed up the worn stone steps to the entranceway and stepped over the remains of what probably was a door and headed inside.

For a moment she was in awe as sunlight filtered through the ruined, stained glass, windows, giving the room an almost otherworldly glow. At the center of the room stood a woman, reverently singing, surrounded by a pile of books and scrolls.

Almost as if she could sense her presense, the woman slowly turned around to face her. There was an ageless quality to her face, making it difficult to discern her age. The woman was wearing a long orange and brown robe, arms folded into the large sleeves.

To Zelda's surprise, the woman smiled gently at her and beckoned for her to come closer. Though hesitant, she complied with the woman until she stood a short distance away.

The mysterious woman sat down on what must've been a marble floor at some point and Zelda awkwardly followed suit. The woman spoke to her warmly,

"Pleased to meet you, Your Grace. My name is Serhild, I was once a priestess of this temple. I'm glad I could assist you, as you appear to be rather lost."

Zelda fidgeted uncomfortably, "My name is not- oh nevermind. What is this place?"

She raised her brow nervously, "Y-yes I'm lost, but what did you mean by-"

"This was the birthplace of Hyrule, this village and its people were a testament to the prowess of the Goddess Hylia. They thrived on the gifts granted to them by the Goddess, however with the passing of time, Hylians have fallen far from all they used to be."

Zelda sat speechlessly, was she being pranked? Unlikely. It did seem more plausible that the woman was simply a hermit who'd lived in these ruins for far too long and became delusional.

Though she still had many questions about what Serhild had told her and called her, it was best to leave before worried about her. Deciding to cut to the chase she asked;

"May you direct me to the route I need to take to leave these woods. It has been . . . insightful chatting with you, but must return home before anyone worries I'm gone."

Serhild stared at her thoughtfully for a moment,

".. .. .Of course."

She brightened fora moment then caution set in. It almost seemed too easy. Serhild spoke up,

"However,"

Zelda grimaced, she'd known it was too good to be true.

"-You will need a guide, those who wander these woods without one will be trapped in its depths forever."

She felt a chill crawl up her spine, she tried to write off Serhild's word as a meaningless, crazy talk from a hermit, but she couldn't ignore the feeling of dread she felt at the words.

She followed Serhild out of the decayed temple and across the faded streets through the village that once was. Though it was eerily empty and in ruin, if she listened hard enough she could almost hear the sounds of children laughing as they ran past, woman gossiping as they folded clothes, and the shouts of merchants at their shops. That chilled her more than anything else.

She shook off the vision and continued on until they halted at the edge of the village. Serhild gestured to an arch of branches interwoven, leading into the forest, a little ways off.

"That is your way out of this place with the help of the guide it will take you where you wish to go."

"What about the guide.. . ."

She trailed off, noticing a familiar dark silhouette.

"You!"

She was almost certain he was the one she chased through the woods. It did beg to question though, what had he been doing on her property in the first place? If he was a so-called 'guide' of this forest, what was he doing around here house in the first place? Did-did he intentionally lead me here? Well now, at least she had the chance to demand why he was stalking her.

Serhild turned to face her again, and pulled out an antiquated looking tome from somewhere within her robes. She held out the worn tome to Zelda expectantly.

Hesitantly, she took it and subtly tried to hold it as far from herself as possible. Honestly, who knew what disgusting things it had come into contact within the dilapidated temple.

"That; is the Book of Mudora. It contains all the greatest secrets of our people. You must know them and learn of your forgotten past, before you can face the Man with the Evil Eyes."

She could not hold in her disbelief any longer, "A man with evil eyes! Do you honestly expect me to buy your nonsense?! There is no such thing as an evil man!"

It was true, men could be incredibly cruel people (especially in her line of work) but there was, realistically, no truly 'evil man' Her stomach turned uncomfortably but she ignored it.

Serhild's expression had remained unreadable throughout her entire outburst and waited for to finish before speaking.

"I see that the blindness affecting your predecessor has been passed onto you, but I know from recent events you have not forsaken your children at the hands of Ganondorf, Your Grace."

For the first time, Zelda saw fear on her face.

"He Sees you; Zelda, even though you cannot or perhaps will not choose to See yourself."

Alarm bells were going off in her head. Ganondorf. Had it been any other thing, she would have written off the woman's words as meaningless drabble but for some reason whenever he was mentioned, she couldn't help but feel anxious.

As she was about to ask her what she meant, her stomach suddenly heaved and instead she vomited all over Serhild's robes.

The next few moments were a blur of embarrassment as Serhild calmly gave her a glass of water (from who know where)and gently rubbing her back, saying it was to be expected in her condition, (how did she even know she was sick?!)and sending her off to the path where her mysterious guide was waiting.

When she reached the arch of trees, she realized her 'guide' was nowhere to be seen. The bushes rustled beside her and the dark silhouette of a figure appeared, face obscured by a hood.

She whipped around angrily, "Before I go anywhere with you, I'd like to know exactly what you were doing around my house!"

The man's voice was soft, yet severe as he spoke,

"The daylight is wasting, come, I will tell you everything on the way."

He started on ahead the winding path, leaving a rather disgruntled Zelda to follow after him. Despite his hushed voice, he spoke with perfect clarity.

"You are the harbinger of The Seven, those who hold the balance of Time in their hands."

He scoffed, "He somehow believes that being a part of your beloved Lorule industries will somehow convince you to join the Yiga clan."

She stopped abruptly, "what in Hyrule ate you talking about?! I asked what you were doing on my property and that was not an answer."

"Ah, but it is, we would never follow some insignificant life about, if they didn't have a hand in the fate of this world as you do."

She breathed in deeply through her nose, "That's it, I'm done with this; this nonsense about fate and magic and whatever other hare-brained ideas you're about to come up with."

She strode forward, determined to make as much distance between herself and that man as possible. The man spoke again with that same soft yet severe tone.

"If you will not join us. .. .. then you will die!"

With a yell he lept forward, scarlet eyes blazing beneath his hood, as he pulled a kunai from his sleeve.

She stood frozen in shock, internally screaming at herself to move. All those years of self-defense training went out the window, she'd never been in a situation like this before and didn't know how to handle it. Suddenly a dark blur raced past her and met the hooded physco head-on.

He ducked beneath him as the stranger lept and snatched the kunai knife away in one smooth motion, rolling into a crouch as he hit the ground. The hooded man didn't waste a second, pulling more kunai from somewhere and threw them at the stranger.

Said figure dogged them fast as lightning and charged toward him with his own combat knife. The hooded man anticipated the attack and caught him by the wrist, making him drop the knife and began to quickly swing the stranger about as if to toss him away.

Using the momentum, the stranger swung his legs inward and kicked the hooded man hard in the stomach to send him flying. The stranger then tumbled to the ground and rolled to his feet, stance tense.

Zelda let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and it took all of her willpower to not crumble to her knees in shock. She didn't quite know what to think of the stranger, on one hand; he saved her life, on the other hand; who knew what his actual motives were? After all, most people don't attack physco's with knives in the middle of the woods with martial arts level fighting skills.

She watched in a wary daze as the stranger precessed to tie up the physco in an odd metallic bond and call someone, hearing only bits and pieces of their conversation. Words such as 'princess', 'hero', 'seven and 'Yiga' popped up several times.

At last, he turned to her, stepping into the light. She was greeted with the face of a young man, probably not much older than her. He had wild, dark blond hair and seemed to be only a couple of inches taller than her. As well as having a muscled but lean form, but perhaps the most mesmerizing thing about him were his eyes.

They were a stunningly bright blue, like the sky on a cloudless day. He smiled at her tentatively.

"This is going to make my job a whole lot harder isn't it."

She blinked out of her stupor, "Your job? May I ask, what, that is exactly? Because so far today I've had to listen to a deranged hermit woman, chased a stalker through the woods, and almost murdered by a lunatic. So I'm sorry if I assume you're another pschyo." She breathed harshly, wondering where her sudden anger had come from.

His only reaction was to blink, "Well, it would be kind of redundant to hurt the person I was hired to protect wouldn't it?"

He took her dumbfounded expression as permission to continue.

"Link Forrester; I work for the Sheikah Agency," he said, gesturing to the symbol of the red-eye with a teardrop on his navy blue vest. "I was hired by an important higher up to guard you. I believe she was worried that Dragmire would try to make a move against you."

He gestured to the body beside him, "And he definitely has."

It was all making sense now, the figure she chased through the woods was him. Her mother had probably picked him up to be her secret bodyguard after her stand against Ganondorf a couple of weeks ago. She shouldn't be surprised her mother hired a Sheikah, they were the best there was.

Still, she wished her mother would ask her permission or at least give her a heads up about these things. Though she was grateful agent Forrester had saved her life, She didn't want some big muscle head following her around.

Zelda looked up sharply, coming to a realization, "Did you imply this 'Yiga' was working for Ganondorf Dragmire?"

He scratched the back of his head uncertainly, "Well, we don't have enough hard evidence to say for sure. ... "

That was all the confirmation she needed, if the Sheikah thought so, then they were probably right. They'd been Hyrule's #1 intelligence agency since the founding of Hyrule and their guidance hadn't let them wrong so far. A wave of relief washed over her knowing that her accusations weren't for nothing.

She folded her arms across her chest,

"I certainly hope you know the way out of these woods, agent Forrester, else you'll no doubt lose the large paycheck my mother offered you."

If she was being forced to work with this man, she would have to assert who was boss from the very beginning. She didn't care what sort of danger her life was in, she wouldn't leave the entirety of her well being up to muscle head.

He gave her a slight bow, "Rest assured, I know my way around these woods Ms. Lorule, we'll be home again before you know it."

He began to lead the way through the forest with confidence, reaching the front Gates of her house in what seemed like no time at all. As she began the gates behind her he spoke up,

"I'm a little hurt you think that I protect you just for the money." He grinned at her.

"Maybe I just enjoy your company."

And with that he gave a slight bow and dashed off in a blur, the same way her came, leaving her wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into.

As promised, I introduced our other main character in this chapter. Originally, he was going to be a lot more stoic and serious like an actual bodyguard, but I realized that I wanted another exciting person in Zelda's life, she can never have enough of those :)


	4. Week 4

The next week was spent in a whirlwind of research. She scoured the internet looking for any connection between Dragmire and the Yiga, now that she an up and close experience with them, she wanted to learn all she could. She would not be caught off guard again.

Despite her efforts, most of what she found was merely speculation and propaganda. True, there were a few sites that had promise but of course, they were blocked by the local government. Dragmire trying to cover his tracks, she suspected. She liked to think she was a decent hacker, but if it ever was traced back to her. ...

Sighing, she pushed away from her laptop and turned to stare at the ancient-looking, purple tome lying on top of her dresser. She told herself the only reason she still had it was because it might have some historical value and perhaps she ought to check it by some historians, yet there it sat, untouched.

As she got up and walked over to her dresser, she convinced herself she was doing this because she needed to use every resource she had. She gently pried the cover open and turned to the first several pages, tentatively she flipped through them looking for something, anything, she could use.

There. On the left side of the page was an older version of what appeared to be the Sheikah eye and next to it, the same eye, only flipped upside down. The caption translated to Sheikah and Yiga. She had taken Ancient Hylian as a minor in college, more out of respect for her heritage than anything else. But now she was glad she'd taken it, though it would take some time, she could decipher it. Hopefully.

Once the excitement had faded, however, she came to realize something. Are the Sheikah connected to the Yiga? How? It made sense that the Sheikah were in ancient history; as the people who called themselves the Shadow folk could be traced back to the beginning of Hyrule itself. But the Yiga? She'd assumed that they were merely a gang of fanatics that became Dragmire's lapdogs.

A smile suddenly came across her face, she didn't know, but she knew who might have answers. Speaking of, where was her knight in shining armor? She had seen neither high not low of him since last week, then again, that was what a Sheikah agent did. Stay out of sight unless absolutely necessary.

She'd called for him before, but he never showed. She'd given every warning she could think of, still nothing. (He grinned at her, "Maybe I just enjoy your company.") She huffed, frustrated, loathe to admit she was asking for his company.

But he was the only lead she had to the Yiga and by extension; Ganondorf Dragmire.

"Agent Forrester! You have 20 seconds to get here!"

Nothing. She sighed internally, drastic circumstances called for drastic measures. She went to the safe beneath her head, unlocking it and pulling out a gun.

Personally, she wasn't a fan of firearms but her mother had always instilled in her the need to defend herself and taught her how to use it. Another reason why she was so confused that her mother hired a bodyguard for her.

Taking the gun downstairs with her, she headed out to the garage and backed her car out into the driveway. Stepping out, she made sure she was out in the open before she cocked the gun and pointed it at her head.

To her satisfaction (and relief) her bodyguard lept down in front of her from (somewhere?) and reached his hands toward her in alarm.

"Zelda! Whatever you feel like you need to do, isn't worth your life. please put the gun down!"

She almost smirked, in his state of panic he'd forgotten his professionalism and called her by her first name. 'I could get you in trouble for that agent Forrester.'

She looked him directly in the eyes and spoke calmly,

"Do exactly as I say and there will be no harm, get in the car, and remain silent we're going on a little trip."

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The air between them was tense as they headed up the winding, metal staircase to a balcony with hanging gardens on which were a few sets of small, round dining tables.

She had driven into the city to her favorite Italian restaurant, Gustaf's, which had healthy yet delicious cuisine, not to mention she was close with the owner. She'd saved his restaurant from shutting down after it being wrecked by a terrible storm and losing his shabby insurance all in one week. As she'd saved both his livelihood and family with a deal she'd offered him, he'd given her VIP access to the place ever since.

Which meant she could get away with parking in a secluded lot and head to her own private dining area with a gun pointed to her head and everyone would be none the wiser. It was risky but she knew she could pull it off.

Once they were seated across from each other, Zelda finally removed the gun away from her head and carefully placed it in her purse.

Her bodyguard let out a shaky breath of relief and gave her a bemused smile.

"I know being assigned to you was going to be difficult, but it seems like you're determined to make it harder."

She smiled at him coldly,

"If my demands are too high for you; Agent Forrester, you're free to resign."

He shook his head ruefully,

"Besides," His eyes glowed with a feeling she couldn't identify, "I've always wanted to work with you."

As she contemplated his words, she felt a warmth rise in her chest. Suddenly remembering why she brought him here, she pushed the warmth away and cleared her throat, trying to get out of. .. . whatever that had been.

"You know, I wouldn't have to take such drastic measures if you'd just come the first several times I called."

He opened his mouth to speak and she raised a finger to silence him,

"And don't tell me you weren't around to hear. I know you're never far from my side. I've studied Sheikah policy."

He sighed, "You've clearly done your homework, but that wasn't what I was going to say"

The exasperation on his face was bordering on pleading,

"I'm not - I can't - it goes against the rules for a Sheikah agent to hang about in the open and to come at our charge's beck and call."

She folded her hands in her lap, this was going nowhere, she would have to take a different approach.

"I have been targeted by a person who was likely an assassin sent by Mayor Dragmire. And if there was one there's probably going to be more in the way, the mayor has a lot of connections to dangerous people.

"I'm not going to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for some unseen danger. I'm going to resolve this matter one way or the other."

She lifted up her gaze to meet his eyes.

" . . ... And that starts by tracking down the Yiga clan."

His reaction was priceless, face attempting to contort into several expressions ranging from surprise, fear, frustration, and possibly even admiration.

She managed to keep her mirth from showing. For a Sheikah, he wasn't very good at hiding his emotions. He practically wore his heart on his sleeve, unlike her.

Link opened his mouth as if to say something before they were interrupted by the arrival of the waitress.

"Good to see you today Miss Lorule! Have you and your plus one thought about your orders?"

Zelda felt her irritation flare at the waitress, both at the fact she'd interrupted them and that assumed Link was her date. Did it really look like that? She'd come here enough times with other male business partners for the staff to know she wasn't the dating type.

Before she could inform the girl of her mistake and perhaps salvage some of her dignity; Link, curse him, spoke up.

"Yes, I'd like a beef minestrone soup as a side and shrimp alfredo as my main."

He turned to face her innocently, "And you, love?"

That's it. He's fired.

She forced a kind smile at the waitress, " I'll have the same."

As soon as she left with their orders, she faced his eyes glowing with anger.

"You had no right to involve yourself in that. My day to day concerns are not yours to worry about."

"You didn't need to tell at that girl either," he argued, "She made an honest mistake, not one worth blowing up over."

He shrugged, "Besides, it makes a good cover story and if I'm to be hanging around you from now on, we're going to need a viable explanation."

Zelda paused, "Wait, so you're. ..."

"Yes, that's right, I'll assist you in your mission."

He sighed and looked up at her ruefully, "Only because I get the impression you'll do this with or without my help."

She allowed a smile to come across her face. "Looks like you're finally starting to understand me, agent Forrester. So, partners?"

She held out her hand to him.

A glint of admiration shine in his eye and a ghost of a smile crossed his face. He clasped his hand with hers.

"partners."


	5. Week 5

Crimson eyes followed him back and forth as he moved about. His inner anxieties showing through.

"Link, quit pacing, you're going to run a hole in the floor."

Link ignored him from where he sat on a dusty box and continued pacing. He had so much on his mind, so many factors to take into account. He didn't know whether to commend himself for finding a way to stay closer to her or to kick himself for getting drawn into her schemes.

Rough, bandaged hands grabbed his shoulders firmly, halting his pacing,

"Link." Link sighed and looked up to face him. His friend grinned, releasing him and standing back.

"Now I know your mind is probably fretting over the welfare of a pretty blonde but we have more legitimate concerns at the moment."

Link glater at him. "I am focusing on the mission, Quinn. But it's difficult when she throws herself into danger at every turn."

Quinn snorted. "And I bet you're trying really hard to hold her back."

Link sighed, "You don't know what she's like. Once she has her mind set on something it's impossible to stop her. That's why it's better that I accompany her, she'll be safer."

Quinn raised an eyebrow slowly. "And you're sure there's no . . ...other reason?"

Under the intense scrutiny of Link's death glare, he raised his hands in defense.

"Okay! Okay! You've made your point! Still, Chief's been considering sending in agent Sheilds; it would make miss Lorule more comfortable if she had a woman guarding her."

Link groaned, "She'd be worse off than I am. You know how she idolizes Zelda Lorule. She'd be kissing up to her day one."

"She'd be reasonable."

They both went quiet for a moment before Quinn spoke up softly.

"And. ...how are the flower buds?"

Link turned to face the small window in that attic, watching the sunlight filter through, his footsteps too light to kick up dust. A small smile graced his face.

"They're doing well, I've done a few scans on my Sheikah slate, we're right on track."

Quinn let out a breath, "Which; is surprising, as she doesn't even know. How? I've no idea. Was she raised by cuckoos or something?"

"Anti-natalist mother."

"Ah."

Link turned to Quinn and gave a slight bow. "Thanks for the report agent Ivory. Give my regards to the chief."

His friend grinned, "Will do, good luck!" Then muttered under his breath, "You're gonna need it."

He then quickly pressed two fingers to the dusty floor and disappeared in a flash of light.

Link started a moment later at the sound of Zelda calling out for him. He sighed, he was really going to have to find a subtler way to communicate with her in the future.

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The Yiga's involvement was like having a trail of bread crumbs that led right to the culprit; Dragmire. Zelda had assumed he was smart enough not to leave evidence, but guilty people tend to make mistakes when they think they're safe.

Agent Forrester informed her earlier in the week that it was unlikely they'd find the Yiga by chance. Which meant they would have to focus their efforts on finding the Yiga's hideout. When she'd questioned why the Sheikah had never tried finding their lair before, he'd responded rather defensively saying they'd had. But the Yiga would mislead them using fake or old bases, making it difficult to keep track of them.

She'd considered using the Book of Mudora for info on the Yiga, (after consulting a historian and confirming its accuracy of course) but Link had been quick to intervene. Saying he probably knew more about modern Yiga than the book did. She'd puzzled over his sudden willingness to be open with her, but didn't mind it.

She groaned and laid her head against the cool surface of her desk as a wave of nausea washed over her. She probably spent so much time anxiously searching that it was starting to make her sick.

She blinked, sitting up slowly (to avoid nausea from worsening) reaching over the desk to grab the Book of Mudora. If she couldn't get any leads on the Yiga then she might as well start at the other end of the spectrum.

She flipped through the pages until she found it. Gerudo. Ganondorf's people, the desert dwellers. Historically, the Gerudo were a race of all females, who only gave birth to one male every hundred years. Upon conception, Gerudo males were always named King, as per tradition. As bizarre as it sounded, the Book backed it up.

Ganondorf happened to be that one male, which; according to the Book, signified a Great Change. For whatever reason, the Gerudo and the Hylians had a long and often violent history but currently were at peace.

One thorough internet search later (hacking) she concluded Ganondorf had spent most of his life at the Gerudo capital, Fortresse. In fact, he had only moved to Hyrule a free years ago, meaning; if she wanted to find his connections to the Yiga, Gerudo desert was a good place to start.

Satisfied with her conclusion, she quickly laid out a plan inside her head.

"Agent Forrester, I believe I have found a lead!"

While waiting for him to arrive, she pulled a large suitcase from her closet and raced around her room, gathering all the necessary items.

"What's going on?"

Her heart nearly leaped out of her throat at the sound of his voice directly behind her.

As it was, she tripped over her feet in surprise, flying forward due to her momentum.

Link let out a frantic noise, before racing over and quickly wrapping his arms around her and gently lowering them down to the floor.

He hovered over her concernedly, hand gently cupping her cheek.

"Are you okay?" he whispered

"Y-yes." she let out breathlessly.

Her heart was racing as he helped her stand up, she shook herself, trying to get back in order. She cleared her throat,

"A-Anyway, I think I've found a possible lead. So far, we've been looking for the Yiga's connections to Ganondorf but what if we did it vice versa?

"Ganondorf Dragmire is a Gerudo, meaning, it's possible we may find evidence of his dealings with the Yiga in Gerudo desert, as he's only moved to Central Hyrule recently."

Link began nodding slowly, "It's possible. . ." he muttered to himself.

"Maybe you should be the Sheikah, not me," he said teasingly.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh please, I'm not the only person in the world that use logic."

"No, I'm serious, I've seen how you work. Being a Sheikah is about more than fighting and stealth, it requires skill, Patience, and the ability to see the truth. I'm not one to give false compliments, I meant what I said."

She couldn't stop the smile that crossed her face, he honestly believed that she could be someone special like that. All her life she'd thought talent was cheaper than table salt, and the only thing that separated the talented and the truly gifted was hard work. Early in life, her mother had informed her she wouldn't amount to anything if she wasn't willing to work harder than everyone else for it.

And yet, somehow, Link believed that she had the potential for something she'd never even tried to do. She was a bit flattered yes, but also. ... grateful.

She looked up at him, ". . . . Thank you." she said sincerely.

He blinked, looking surprised before smiling good naturally, "Your welcome."

He looked over at her suitcase. "So, I'm guessing Zelda Lorule and her new boyfriend are taking a vacation to Gerudo desert."

On instinct, she wanted to refute his claim of their relationship before remembering it was their cover story. Admittedly a good one.

She sighed, "Yep, now I hope you have some luggage hiding around my house somewhere so we can get going."

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Two and a half hours later they were on their way to Gerudo desert. They had taken Link's car after deciding Zelda's would be too easily recognized. Zelda watched as the scenery zipped by her, enamored with the sight of the desert's endless shifting sands and vast mountains. She had never seen any other region in Hyrule than Faron and Castle Town.

"Did you know that Sand Seals can travel up to 50 mph Sand surfing?"

"What!?"

"I'm sorry, I can't stand awkward silences!"

Zelda shifted in her seat uncomfortably, was her silence really so bothersome to him? He must've seen something in her expression because he backed off.

"Err. . ..sorry, I just. . .wondered if you knew. .." he turned to face the front window again.

No, no, don't shut me out! She started, surprised by her own sentiments, never had she been so eager to speak to another man. What was it about him. ...

"Um. . .so.. .why did you decide to become a Sheikah?"

He visibly brightened and she couldn't help but feel a bit of relief.

"It's funny actually, one of my main reasons for joining was because it didn't require much speaking. As a kid, I had trouble expressing myself to other people, almost selectively mute."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed, you certainly don't seem that way now. What changed?"

He let out a small grin, "Impa did, she's our chief; runs the organization. She took a. . .. special interest in me, I guess.

"She noticed I was very reluctant to speak to people and said that if I let it, my silence would cost me. She was determined to make me my best self and made me take 'conversation classes'. She personally trained me in Sheikah martial arts too. I guess you could say I was her protege."

He rubbed the back of his head bashfully, probably embarrassed by the awed look she was giving him.

His employment to her mother suddenly made a lot more sense. He was the Sheikah chief's protege, personally trained by one of the best Sheikah in her time. No wonder he was hired to protect her, he was likely one of the best there was. She. glanced at him with a new appreciation and made a mental note to check his records later in case she might find anything else. . .. interesting.

She slowly came too as Link shook her gently.

"Hey," he said, "We just headed into the outskirts of Fortresse, we should probably find a place to stay."

She nodded her consent but was still a bit confused. when had she fallen asleep? she had been unusually tired as of late, odd because she hadn't done anything particularly tiring today.

She rolled down her window as they slowly drove through the streets, looking at the Adobe houses, elaborately adorned and the vendors selling food and other items. Suddenly starving, she turned to Link.

"Can we pull over somewhere? I want to try out some of the food they're selling."

"We just had lunch a couple of hours ago. Are you really still hungry?" he asked questioningly.

"I just - have never tried Gerudo cuisine before, I'm curious." She said somewhat defensively, not mentioning that's probably what they would be having their entire stay here.

In the end, he found a sandy parking lot and then proceeded to head out into the Dusty streets. The booths were decorated with exotic and gaudy fabric, the Gerudo women themselves blending right into the scenery, dressed in the same style.

She stopped their stroll for a moment, smelling something interesting. Turning around, she took Link's arm (much to his surprise) and pulled them toward a vendor that was selling some kind of fried plant.

"S'av Saba." She greeted, "Would you like to sample our fried Leaver strips little vai?"

Trying out the sample, she found that these so-called "Leaver's" didn't taste half bad. It's like a cross between green beans and cauliflower, with a more meaty texture maybe?

She nodded to the woman, "I'll buy a small bag."

Ignoring Link's bewildered look, she continued on her way, while digging in her bag to pull out a small jar of Nutella. Before dipping one of the Leaver strips in and taking a bite.

Link looked at her like she was crazy, "How can you even eat that?" he breathed, "I almost gagged from the smell alone."

"Are you kidding? This is authentic Gerudo food, and they're great cooks, besides it tastes even better with Nutella."

He rolled his eyes, "Of course it does, anything tastes better with chocolate frosting."

"It's a hazelnut spread, chocolate frosting tastes way different."

"Oh please, it probably has what; two hazelnuts in the entire jar!"

She gasped in mock horror, "Are you saying you don't like Nutella!?"

"I'm saying I don't like chocolate frosting on my sandwich."

She huffed, trying to find the motel destination on her phone. But her heart wasn't in it, and she couldn't hide the small smile on her face.

Link too seemed to be in good spirits, eyes bright as he gazed at their surroundings, taking it all in.

At last, they arrived at the motel, checking in before heading to their room. Which was adorned in traditional Gerudo style, looking like the inside of an Adobe brick house, with bright, gilded furnishings.

She let out an internal sigh of relief at the sight of two beds in their room. She knew the whole 'Honeymooning couple' was their cover story but she didn't want to push it anymore than necessary.

"Don't start relaxing just yet Link, we have things to be searching for while we're here," she said as he flopped down into the bed eyes closed.

He opened one eye to peer at her,

"No don't worry, my head's in the game, I'm just getting into my 'amature - tourist - overwhelmed - by - heat' act."

"Good." she said, peering out at the city below, "We've got a theif to catch."


	6. Week 6

The Gerudo Intelligence Center was well placed, being at the center of the city, surrounded by high, smooth, sturdy walls that were near impossible to climb, a tarp covering its expanse. After studying the walls for a minute or so Zelda told him she was impressed with their design, explaining that, even though it lacked a roof, this made the Center's defense all the better as anyone sneaking in from up above would be caught by their easy to see shadows in the bright Gerudo sun.

Not to mention, it would be near impossible to get in from above, as the only place in the city higher than the Intelligence Center itself was the Fortress where the Gerudo Chief resided and that would be even harder to try to infiltrate.

Luckily for both of them, Link was Sheikah trained to handle these sorts of situations. To get atop the great, sandstone wall he had simply pushed himself off its side and ran toward the opposite wall before jumping forward and kicking himself off the opposite wall, backflipping through the night air at an arched angle till he landed on the two-inch ledge of the sandstone wall lining the Intelligence Center.

He carefully steadied himself, he had forgotten to calculate the factor of the water that ran atop the walls of the city. Meaning he could have accidentally gone splash and alerted every guard within a 10 ft radius to his presence.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he regained his balance on the little ledge and spotted the group of Gerudo guards he was trailing. He and Zelda had spent over a week here at Fortresse, going about subtly asking around concerning the Yiga or Ganondorf.

Though there were a few suspicious glances, they played the oblivious Hylian tourists rather well. The few promising leads they had gotten of course led to the Gerudo soldiers themselves, as it was rumored they had gone after the Yiga several times into the desert.

After studying the layout of the Fortress and the soldiers' routine, Zelda had come up with an infiltration plan. At the moment, she was following up on a different lead….. He shook his head, getting back on track, time for phase two. Blending with the shadows he slid down the sandstone wall and silently landed in the Intelligence Center. The majority of the Gerudo were firing at targets, while the rest were speaking with who he assumed were the Captains.

He narrowed his eyes, now that was where he'd hear the good stuff. Cautiously he made his way toward them, taking note of the watch women's gazes. He stuck to the darkness as he made his way along, trying to keep the impatience out of his movements.

He was nearly within the range of the captain's voices when a watch women's eyes flashed, alighting upon him. His hand was in and out of his pouch in an instant, pulling out a Deku capsule. It flew through the air towards the watch women in a second, dissolving upon reaching her body heat and releasing the gas.

Deku nut powder made excellent knockout gas, and the Sheikah had been utilizing the uses of Deku tree products for countless millennia. Link let out an internal sigh of relief as the watch women slumped over slightly, Giving the area one last look over, he proceeded to inch closer to the captains and listen in.

" . . . . . even bother with it? The things they stole were practically worthless anyway."

One of the captains sighed angrily, "It's the integrity of the thing, Jezebel. How would it look if we let some spandex wearing fanatics steal from the Tribe of Thieves?"

The captain on her left nodded, "She's right, we can't let them ruin our reputation, besides, our inaction would only encourage them more."

The fourth captain spoke up, "Although it does make me wonder why they would take the witches 'Vessel Spell' of all the priceless things they could have stolen and they chose that superstitious nonsense?"

"Well, what did you expect? They're more crazy cult than dangerous criminals, you should best be glad they didn't steal anything of actual worth."

That piqued his interest, why would the Yiga want some Voodoo nonsense? It didn't fit their M.O, or Dragmire's for that matter. Sure, he was a power-hungry tyrant but he wasn't the type to believe in fairy tales. Just then another soldier came running up to the captains.

"Anga and Terre have gone missing! They never reported back from patrolling the NorthWestern border. There were signs of a skirmish."

One of the captains visibly ground her teeth, looking frustrated, "Yiga," she hissed under her breath, then spoke directly to the soldier. "Tell me everything that you can, I need to speak to the Chief."

The captains and the soldier began to head to the Fortress. Seeing that his work was done, Link started to stealthily make his way out, though he was stiff, he quickly adjusted. As part of his training, Impa had once forced him to lay in wait for three hours straight.

He gave the area a once over before jumping down from the massive, sandstone wall and headed to the rondevu point.

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Zelda looked at her phone again for reference, she'd discreetly hacked into the Gerudo security network to gain a detailed map of the Fortress. Her destination was Ganondorf's office, it was the most logical place she could think of to look for evidence. The office itself had several hidden defenses and quick exits that could be used for escape.

The most pressing problem was how to get in without detection. Though she'd put all the cameras on a loop, she wasn't a ninja as Link was and didn't have the skills to weave through guard filled halls undetected. The best solution she could think of was to somehow distract all seven guards along the way to give her enough time to sneak past unnoticed.

She reached for the communicator at her hip-something all Gerudo soldiers had- and quickly turned it to the right frequency. She then made her way toward a side entrance, guarded by two soldiers. Raising the deice to her face, she took a moment to match her voice to that lilting accent before speaking into it.

"We have been alerted to signs of an intruder heading your way, there is a high possibility they are Yiga, likely armed, and dangerous. Go and intercept them before they reach you!"

The two guards were instantly on alert, pulling their guns out of their holsters before hurriedly moving towards the west side of the Fortress. Hardly believing her luck, Zelda nervously made her way up to the doors and picked the lock, trying to keep her hands steady. Cautiously, she pulled open one of the doors, relieved to find it didn't creak. They must the hinges well oiled-a mistake on their part.

Slipping inside, she carefully made her way through the labyrinth of corridors and rooms. The guards inside-though attentive-weren't as vigilant, a simple rupee toss here and vague radio call there took care of them. They must expect anyone to get past the first wave of defense.

She leaned against a wall tiredly, trying to overcome her sudden fatigue. This wasn't like her, she'd stayed up later than this before on multiple occasions and now of all times, her body decided to give in. Too late she heard a pair of guards stalk down the hall, spotting her immediately.

"Hey! You! What are you doing here? This is authorized personnel only!"

The other guard spoke into her radio, "There's been a security breach, we have an intruder in sublevel 1, sector 7. Female, blonde, Hylian."

In a flash, Zelda pulled her hand out of her pocket, throwing a couple of smoke pellets at the guards. In the midst of their coughing and cries of confusion, she made her getaway in the smoke, continuing to make her way towards Dragmire's office. Curses. How could she let herself get so careless? At last, she reached the heavy looking door that led to his room. A few months back she had peeked into his private account and learned all of his passcodes. (she made it a habit to know everything about suspicious people she worked with) She had used them to gain access to his past deals and projects, as she suspected he was a bad seed. Now she was about to know whether she was right or not.

She quickly went and threw a few of them on the electric lock before it opened. Hurrying in, she shoved the door closed behind her just as the alarm sounded. She didn't have long before they found her, she suspected they were alerted whenever an electronically locked door was open, so she had about 15 minutes. Tops.

She began rummaging around in his desk and closet hoping to find something, anything, useful. She tried to ignore the heavy smell of incense in the room which was quickly making her nauseous. She could hear the footsteps echoing down the halls towards the office and suddenly she could the stress and nausea building up, needing a release. Unable to hold it back any longer, she vomited in an expensive-looking vase standing on a decorative pedestal.

Despite her overall sick feeling, she could at least feel good about ruining the odious man's fancy pottery. If by the end of this whole debacle she ended up in jail, she would always have this one victory over Ganondorf. Her mind cleared and she whipped up her head in realization, she was thinking too small. Ganondorf Dragmire was a descendent of Gerudo thieves, and a common technique for hiding valuables was to seal them in cemented sand. Her eyes peered around the room, she needed to look for something like. . .. .there. A small limestone figurine of the sand goddess next to the burning incense in an alcove in the wall.

Hoping against hope she was right, she threw the figurine at the ground hard, hearing it shatter upon impact. Amidst the limestone shards lay a small flash drive. Her heart surged with excitement, only to be chased away a moment later at the sound of banging and angry voices outside the locked door. Fingers trembling slightly, she hurriedly plugged the flash drive into the laptop on Dragmire's desk. Desperation making her hacking clumsier. Once the files from the flash drive finally opened, she scanned over them quickly.

If it weren't for the angry Gerudo attempting to break in at any moment, she would feel triumphant-albeit lost. The various files contained illegal dealings with the Yiga, coupled with several other dealings with terrorists and foreign governments. But the thing that seemed to come up the most was something called project Force Seal. Unfortunately, she was not versed in what looked like Gerudo mixed with some strange form of Sheikah dialect. Though she was only able to catch a few words; time, contain, light force, drain, seven.

She pulled the flash drive out and put away just as the door slammed open and several heavily armed Gerudo filed in, guns held erect. Zelda slowly raised her hands in the air expression guarded, attempting to salvage some semblance of her dignity. If she was going to be taken down by Gerudo warriors at least she wouldn't go down looking like a pansy.

The soldiers parted to make way for a young woman around Zelda's age, who held her head high. This must be their Chief; Lady Iglesha. Iglesha eyed her curiously for a moment before letting out a sly smile.

"I've heard of you, you're the businesswoman who spoke against King Ganondorf's policies in Central Hyrule."

Zelda nodded in compliance, no point in hiding the obvious. Iglesha turned around abruptly, facing her soldiers, "Take her to the sand vault and wait for me there. There are still some loose ends for me to tie up."

With that she headed out, Zelda was then hand-cuffed and firmly pulled along the corridors until they came upon a sublevel she didn't recognize from the map, the architecture looking much older by centuries. They halted in front of a massive vault door made of metal and what she presumed was sandstone. One soldier went up and pressed her palm in a scanner along the gears clanked and turned as the vault slowly opened to reveal a room bare except for a table and chairs, with small piles of sand round about the room.

She was pulled inside and sat at the table, with the guards taking up positions around her and the vault entrance. She withheld her surprise when Iglesha walked in several minutes later with Link trailing behind her. His eyes caught hers immediately, wondering if she was okay. She gave a slight nod to assure him. As the two of them took seats at the table, Zelda couldn't help but wonder how Iglesha had gotten him here. Did she catch him? (unlikely, and if that was the truth she would fire him) Or did he come forward after he heard they had her? Why didn't you just sneak past the guards and set me free?!

Her doubts about him began to multiply until he turned to her, eyes filled with quiet concern. She immediately felt a small pinprick of guilt.

"So," Iglesha said, "Why don't we all just come clean here and tell me why the daughter of a wealthy philanthropist and a professionally trained Shadow would be snooping around my guardhouse and our King's office."

Zelda quickly reviewed all her options, unfortunately, nothing looked good. They were trapped in an impenetrable vault with six (seven if you counted the Chief) and even if they somehow managed to take them out she still didn't know the access code. And no matter what excuse she made, it still wouldn't excuse the fact they had infiltrated a Head of State's property. That left her with only one option... ...

"We came here to investigate Ganondorf Dragmire, as he is suspicious of criminal activity and we believe he is conspiring with the Yiga clan, possibly in an attempt to overthrow our government."

She took a deep breath and looked Iglesha in the eyes. Business face, Zelda. Wear your business face.

"I apologize for breaking into your fortress and am willing to face whatever charges necessary as long as you go through this flash drive," she said pulling it out of her pocket and placing it on the table. "-And take its contents seriously."

Zelda herself was surprised upon the realization that she meant every word. She never apologized for anything, even if it was illegal, she had always believed that her goals in such activities had important, just reasons, and anyone that stood in her way was taken down by any means short of killing because she was Zelda Lorule. Now she realized her view of the world wasn't as black and white as she thought it was. She had Link in part to thank for that, he always seemed to see the other side of things.

She waited with bated breath and forced herself to look anywhere but at Iglesha and saw Link viewing her with a look of pride or admiration, maybe . . . . something more-

"Now that, is what I like to hear."

Both she and Link blinked in bewilderment, Zelda hoping the shock wasn't obvious on her face. The Chief in question sent them another sly smile, "The Gerudo have been privately investigating our former King after he took an attempt on my life."

Zelda was able to keep her jaw from falling to the floor, trying to get a reading on Iglesha. Did she . . .. approve of them?

"You're asking for your help," Zelda stated attempting to keep the disbelief out of her voice.

The Chief gave her a grin, "I think I'm beginning to like you Zelda Lorule, perhaps there are still some strong women among the Hylians."

Iglesha straightened, "Well then," she said taking the flash drive and holding it between her fingers, "Let's see what we can learn from this, and then we'll discuss how we can help each other."


	7. Week 7

Zelda sighed heavily, wishing the feeling to go away before giving up and rolling out of the way too comfortable bed and heading into the bathroom to relieve herself. Several minutes later she turned to stare at her reflection in the ornate mirror, scowling t her worn appearance. Despite the fact that she had gotten over 7 hours of sleep, she still felt (and looked) horrible. She was overly tired and ache in places she didn't even know she could ache.

A rapid series of knocks at her door startled her out of her reverie and she raced out of the bathroom to go open the door. She took a quick moment to correct her appearance in hopes that she wouldn't look like she'd been run over by a herd of rabid squirrels. Opening the door she was greeted by the face of one of her guards, Rueli.

"Lady Iglesha wanted me to inform you the group is leaving at 10 o'clock sharp. You have 30 minutes."

Zelda tensed at those words, already feeling time start to slip away. Curses. Did she really sleep in that late? An afterthought, at least she didn't notice my haggard appearance. Rueli then headed out and without turning around she said loudly,

"Oh, and be thorough with your makeup, you look like you've been thrown around in a sandstorm!"

Quietly, Zelda said all the curse words she could think of under her breath.

She paused in her dressing fumble to inspect herself in the full-length mirror hanging from the wall. She had been given traditional Gerudo clothes to wear as they would keep her cool (And help her look less like a walking corpse, Rueli's opinion) Her golden hair was done up in a voluminous ponytail, side bangs hanging free. A deep blue swath of cloth was wrapped securely around her chest and cut off just above her waist. The same material hugged her hips and flared out just above her ankles. Her light sandals were gold, the outfit itself adorned in several jewels which she suspected might be real.

She thought it was too much at first, but looking at it now she could see why the Gerudo wore this manner of clothing. It made you feel . . . powerful- and feminine. Thoughts of Link suddenly popped into her head. I wonder what he would think of me wearing something so . . . exposed.

A frown tugged at the corners of her lips, when had Link been able to slip into her mind so easily? And for such pointless matters? Fortunately (or unfortunately) a closer inspection in the mirror presented a new problem to distract her. Have I . . . gained weight? There was a slightly protruding curve on her stomach, unnoticeable at a glance.

When had that happened? It could have been anytime in the past month, honestly. She had been thrown off her usual schedule and hadn't taken time to exercise and pre-plan her meals like she usually did. Not to mention she hadn't been careful with Mrs. Gangreen's decadent cooking or the Gerudo cuisine.

She sighed, embarrassed with herself. She would have to deal with it later, for she had to head to the throne room where everyone was waiting.

She hoped she didn't look self-conscious as she hurried into the throne room. All eyes turned to her as she made her way to the group, where Iglesha was discussing the mission plan that they had developed over the course of the week. If it had been her decision, they would have left earlier in the week, but Iglesha wanted a whole squad to go with them and the more people were going, the more preparation was needed. Including Iglesha, there were five other members in the squad besides her and Link.

Firstly, there was Haeda; Iglesha's personal bodyguard, who took her role very seriously. According to Haeda, she'd been watching over the young chief since she was born.

"I do not approve of Lady Iglesha coming on this mission," she said with a sigh. "But if she is going, I'm going with her."

Second, there was Sulri, who seemed far too trigger happy to be on an espionage mission.

"Just let me at'em," she'd said with a maniacal grin, "They'll all be dead before you can say ambush."

Next, there was Liza, who might've been the most dreary person Zelda had ever met.

"The chances of even one of us making it out of that snake's den alive are so slim I don't even think we should try," she said dully.

Lastly, there was Mindy, and from first glance Zelda could tell she was a rookie, always deferring to everyone else, seemingly eager to prove herself.

"It's an honor alongside Lady Iglesha, I will defend our chief till my last breath!"

"S'vei!" Iglesha called out. Attention.

Everyone quieted down and turned toward her as she stood upon the dais leading up to the throne. Once she had everyone's eyes on her she began to speak.

"As you all are aware, this mission is top priority, we are on the verge of exposing the Yiga and getting one step closer to ending them once and for all. As the files on Ganondorf's flash drive revealed, the Yiga have made their main base here; in the Northwest part of the desert; Thunder Crevice."

Iglesha's calm visage suddenly vanished, her face lined with anger, eyes blazing.

"This is an outrage! To think our greatest enemies are here, in our own home, like a Molduga, lying in wait for its unsuspecting prey!"

Zelda could feel the tension and rage in the air from the Gerudo next to her, even if they didn't show it visibly. The Gerudo Chief then began to relay the plan for infiltration into the Yiga base and the formation they would be traveling in.

Zelda peered around the room, trying to locate Link, and found him staring at the floor, fists clenched, rage radiating off him. His manner gave her pause, she'd always known he was dangerous (that's why he's her bodyguard after all) but she'd never seen him as intimidating- until now.

"Link . . ." she called uncertainly, hating how nervous she sounded.

He was alert in a second, his eyes on her before she could blink. In that singular moment, she could feel fear strike her heart from the way he stood there, hatred filled eyes looking through her, undeterred.

Then he blinked and the anger was gone in an instant, leaving a confused Link in its place.

"Zelda . . .?"

She tried not to appear shaken, pushing down her fear. Hiding it beneath a facade of half scolding half teasing.

"And here I thought that Sheikah were supposed to be constantly aware of their surroundings."

He seemed to try for an easy smile, "Sorry, this mission just brings back memories . . ."

He shook himself, "Anyways, we're about to head out, are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready, let's go." She took a step forward them stopped.

"On second thought, I think I have to use the bathroom."

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It was still early in the day, yet the sun beat down hot on his face as Link raced alongside the rest of the squad on a sand seal. The walrus-like creature swam through the golden sand like it was water while he was pulled along from behind, astride a surfing shield. The experience itself was similar to the time he had gone water skiing at Lake Hylia.

He watched Zelda dangerously on her surfing shield before righting her tentative balance. It had taken all his willpower to hold back a teasing remark, she most definitely would not have appreciated it, especially from him. Zelda, for all her many skills, was not a sand surfer. She turned her head to the side and gave him a suspicious glance, almost as if she knew he was thinking of teasing her.

He then heard Iglesha call out ahead of them, "We've reached the Thunder Crevice, we're going to have to go on foot from here on out if we want to keep the element of surprise!"

Zelda looked relieved when everyone dismounted and began to discreetly make their way up the side of the rocky outcropping lading into the crevice. As they moved further in, Link could feel himself tense up and the steadily increasing sight of pennants adorned with the Yiga symbol didn't help with his growing anxiety.

Half of the Gerudo scouted on ahead, and every once in a while, the sounds of a quiet scuffle would ensue. Iglesha turned to Haeda and gave her a slight nod, this was it. He tried to remember the meditation technique Impa had taught him. Letting himself be overcome by emotion in the middle of a mission made him a liability.

Iglesha signaled for everyone to climb down as they reached the main entrance. They then headed down into a small circular cavern with high walls. Giant, sandstone statues of swordswoman lined the sides of the room, their faces covered by banners bearing the inverted eye.

Mindy and several of the other Gerudo made noises of outrage, "They have desecrated the image of the Seven Heroines in an ancient place of worship! I will have their heads-"

"Calm yourselves," Iglesha said quietly but sharply, "It will do us no good to lose our head in the heart of enemy territory. Rest assured these criminals will pay with their lives."

She then turned to Zelda,"Where to now miss Lorule?"

It had been agreed that Zelda would lead the way, as she was the only way who could decipher the strange Yiga language. She looked at each of the statues, studying the characters that were inscribed on each. She then halted her observation and walked up to the statue just left of the center and felt around at the bottom of the statues' robes before finally pulling down on a slab of sandstone hidden in the folds of the statue's robes.

Gears clanked inside the statue as a slab of stone at the statue's base pulled away to reveal a passage underneath the sandstone swordswoman, dimly lit with fluorescent lights. Iglesha gestures for her to lead on. As the blonde women headed into the narrow passage, a sudden grip of fear squeezed his heart and without thinking, he raced over and latched onto her arm tightly.

"Link?" she questioned, her voice quivering slightly.

"Don't you ever head into dangerous places without me here to protect you? Do you understand?"

Deep beneath his Sheikah warrior front, he knew he was scaring her, unfortunately, his self-control had been overridden by his own mind and body. He could feel the Gerudo behind him go on instant alert, regarding him as though he were a wild animal backed into a corner. It took all his willpower to force himself to loosen his grip on her, taking what he hoped was a more casual position.

Zelda seemed to understand that they needed to appear as though nothing was wrong, but he could tell from the look in her eye that this wasn't over. Zelda spoke up,

"I understand, I will defer to your expertise in the future as you know best in these situations. My apologies for forgetting to alert you earlier."

She was a master of asking her true feelings if he said so himself. Acting as though she hadn't just been grabbed by an unhinged, dangerous alter ego of himself. The Gerudo relaxed somewhat as she began to continue down the passageway calmly with him in arm.

The passage eventually let out into an enormous sandstone cavern, walls lined with more pennant flags, the inverted eye plastered everywhere. Link tried to push down the panic rising inside of him. It looks just like it, even down to the rank smell of sterile labs mixed with blood . . . oh Goddesses, this is the facility, isn't it?

His mind began to be bombarded by images. Being strapped to the cold metallic table as their blurry masked faces loomed over him as they plunged the needle in. Eerie, haunted faces staring at him in the dim light. Her desperate screams as she was dragged away calling out to him, blood running down-

"Link, Link!" Zelda was shaking him.

He was here. In the present. With Zelda. And the Gerudo. Not real, not real. He could fight. He was fine. It was fine. Everything was fine.

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She watched, tense, as Link slowly came back, breathing shakily and staring at her confused but aware. She released a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. They were currently crouching on a loft, overlooking what seemed to be a warehouse beneath them, swarming with Yiga. She watched them, in their form-fitting, crimson combat suits, inverted eye masks covering their faces as they patrolled the area, guarding the various hallways.

The Gerudo came up behind them, Iglesha sending her a knowing glance from her to Link. Iglesha crawled over next to her, "Perhaps it would be best if I had Haeda keep an eye on him, just in case he . . . drifts off again."

Zelda felt embarrassment creep up inside her. Here was the Gerudo chief, offering a babysitter for her partner, because he couldn't keep it together. Iglesha signaled for Haeda to come over and whispered in her ear before Haeda nodded and discreetly made her way over to Link. Attempting to change the subject, Zelda spoke up.

"I've studied their patterns, there's a route we can take to avoid them and make our way to the upper left door. If we follow along the path the flash drive mapped out for us, we should reach their archives. It may have the evidence we're looking for."

The Gerudo woman listened intently as she explained the route to them, all the while she was trying to keep herself from pulling Link into the nearest corner and demanding answers. Using a rope, they cautiously shimmied down to the ground beneath them, hidden behind a stack of crates.

Sulri and Liza headed out first, thoroughly watching the Yiga's movements before signaling for the rest of the squad to follow. Zelda was in the middle, with Iglesha and Mindy taking up the sides. Link was at the back with Haeda, who was bringing up the rear and carefully watching him as well.

As they reached the door, Sulri and Liza halted, Zelda was confused until she heard the familiar, light footsteps of a patrolling Yiga. Iglesha clicked her tongue softly to get the squad's attention, then grinned as she pulled out a bunch of bananas, to Zelda's bewilderment. She threw the bananas to Liza who then went around the crate they were crouching behind and tossed them behind the Yiga heading their way.

As she watched the event occur, she began to wonder if Link's odd behavior was becoming contagious. Then as the Yiga whipped around at the soft thump and spotted the bananas, his suspicion seemed to turn to excitement (though it was difficult to tell with the mask on). He quickly became enamored with the fruit and Zelda was astounded as they snuck past and headed into the corridor, the Yiga not sparing them a single glance.

Seeming to note her surprise, Iglesha whispered in her ear, "The Yiga love bananas. We don't really know why, but it's definitely something we can exploit." She winked at her mischievously.

They continued to head around the maze-like hideout for what seemed like hours. At one point, her phone's signal disconnected, fortunately for them, she had memorized the map. There were no more major incidents in their path (especially with the bananas on their side). The factor she was most concerned about was Link.

Though he went along without any nudging, his movements seemed lethargic, his face blank. He didn't seem all the way there, which worried her, but she told herself it was because of his importance to the mission, not her personal feelings. She breathed a sigh of relief once they reached the archives, an inconspicuous little door that lay in a hidden hallway she'd almost missed.

Link walked up beside her and she involuntarily went stiff. She wasn't sure what to think of him, his episode earlier just made her realize how little she knew about him and the thought only made her more determined to find his background files.

"It's too easy." He murmured quietly, looking straight at the door.

"What?" She turned to look at him directly.

Finally, he looked at her face to face, his expression was blank, but she could see the fire burning in his eyes.

"They want us to be here."

Before she could think of a reply, a beep and a sharp click informed her the door had been unlocked and she was ushered quickly inside, Link following just behind her. The inside was lined with rows and rows of shelves that reached nearly all the way to the ceiling. As they cautiously went along, she was surprised to see how archaic some of the records looked. Old fashioned books and scrolls yellowed with age filled many of the shelves, dust piled high. She was lucky their records were arranged by simple letter alphabet, some of the characters were so old and faded it would have been impossible to make out.

She went through the "D" section without much luck, finding nothing on Dragmire. Link, who had been standing next to her so quietly she almost forgot he was there, spoke up,

"Head to the "G" section for Ganondorf and Goddess Mother, you're thinking too modern, surname's weren't used for a very long time. Your answers lie in Hyrule's past."

She nodded hesitantly, off-put by his strange demeanor, and hurriedly moved along to the "G" section. At one point she would've been angry and annoyed for him to dismiss her like that. Now though, her thoughts toward him hovered around concerned and suspicious. Moving closer to suspicious.

She knew it was a Sheikah's nature to act distant and unaffected, but ever since his episode he'd been acting not like himself. Too calm, too detached, not to mention that he seemed to know a lot about this place for only being here once added to her suspicion that Link was hiding something important.

As she came up to the shelves that housed the "G" section, she froze. They were empty. There was no dust to be seen, which meant . . . she felt Link stiffen beside her. In the blink of an eye, there were dozens of crimson suited Yiga surrounding them. Their white, inverted-eye adorned masks gleaming in the dim light of the archives.

She did a double-take as one Yiga seemingly melted out of the darkness above them, flanked by two other Yiga, standing on a platform that nearly blended in with the walls, noticeable at first glance. She cursed to herself, had they been watching them from above this whole time? The Yiga on the platform stood out. as he wasn't wearing a mask. His smooth angular face could almost be described as handsome as it was highlighted by his scarlet eyes and midnight black hair that fell to his shoulders.

"I must admit I'm impressed you managed to make it this far." The maskless Yiga spoke.

Zelda surmised he must be a leader of some sort based on his posture and the way he spoke. She felt chills crawl up her spine as his eyes landed directly on her.

"Then again, you are the pre-destined bearer of Wisdom, so despite your upbringing, I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised."

She couldn't keep the dumbfounded look off her face. Is he talking to me? My upbringing? What in Hyrule is he- She heard the sharp click of guns as the Gerudo pulled them out of their holsters, cocked and ready, aimed at the Yiga around them.

The Yiga leader only smirked at the display of aggression. "Cute, but pointless. I now see why Lord Ganon distanced himself from the Gerudo, you're too stuck in your old ways, think too small to see the bigger picture."

Iglesha's eyes narrowed and she clenched her gun angrily and opened her mouth to speak but Haeda halted her, she probably thought it wasn't worth the effort. Zelda felt herself quickly growing frustrated with the exchange. She felt like she was a child again, being talked down to by adults as though she was innocent and clueless.

She tried not to let the frustrated edge enter her voice, "What is your endgame? You say you work for Ganondorf, but something tells me you're not looking for a seat in his council."

The Yiga leader's eyes glinted with something; surprise? Approval? He chuckled deviously, "Oh you ignorant little goddess, have you truly fallen so far that you cannot see what is right in front of you? Surely you have come to realize that our endgame is you."

Before she even had time to process that information he continued on. "Politics are one of the least stable things in the world, if one wishes to gain absolute authority and obedience- they must utilize the one true source of power in this world."

"You."

Zelda took a step back, mind whirling. Was he referring to her position at L.I? No, he was the one who said how inconsistent such positions could be. So what-

"You, Zelda Lorule, might just be one of the most powerful beings in this world and you don't even have an inkling of it. Though I suppose you have your "mother" to blame for that, Lila was always good at turning people into something they're not."

What?! She had pretty confirmed he was delusional until he mentioned her mother, talking as if he knew her personally. How did he even know her? She supposed he could've just googled Lila Lorule, but still . . .

He leaned against the railings and tilted his head. "What confuses me is why you're all here together considering-"

He abruptly halted in his tirade as his gaze landed on Link, his eyes widening with shock, then, to her surprise, he began to laugh.

"Well, well, well - you're playing a dangerous game Impa! Never in a million years did I think you'd send him here!"

He continued to laugh as Link stood there, frozen, fists clenched at his sides, countless emotions passing through his eyes as he started ahead, unblinking. The Yiga leader smirked at him, eyes glinting malevolently, "So tell me, how does it feel to be here? Brings back memories, doesn't it? Remember listening to her as she squealed -"

In the blink of an eye, a blur shot out from Link's direction and impaled the Yiga leader in his right eye. Everything happened in an instant, one minute they were watching the Yiga leader collapse with an agonizing yell, the next, she was being pulled behind a shelf by Link as the Gerudo and the Yiga opened fire on each other.

Unfortunately, before she could even begin to get a grip on the situation, the sparks from the flying bullets caught fire to the many books and scrolls in the archive, and within seconds the whole room was on fire.

"Wait!" She half-protested as Link dragged her to the exit, the Gerudo following. She wanted to confront the Yiga leader and demand answers but she knew now was not the time nor place. As they raced through the hallways, with angry Yiga hot on their tail, she mentally praised Haeda for having them all memorize an emergency escape route. All the while Link gripped her arm like a life-line, never loosening his grip till they poured out of the back of the hide-out and into the setting sun.

Even so, no one paused to talk, continuing at a breakneck pace until they were some ways away from Thunder Crevice. Finally, they stopped to set up camp for the evening beneath the overhang of a large sandstone boulder lying amidst the sand. It was only until they were all seated around the blazing campfire did Iglesha begin to speak.

"We were ambushed, they knew we were coming. My best guess is that they had eyes on us from the very beginning, or . . ." She subtly glanced over at Link.

" . . . or they had someone on the inside."

Whispers broke out among the Gerudo and Mindy spoke up, "You mean like a spy?"

Iglesha nodded, "But the only ones who knew about this mission were among my closest confidants, whose backgrounds have been checked thoroughly. If there's a spy, I doubt it came from our own ranks."

Zelda caught on yo what she was insinuating, feeling anger and defensiveness sweep through her. Likely noticing Zelda's offense, Iglesha pulled her aside after everyone settled in for the night.

"Be wary of your Sheikah friend, Zelda. He is not who he seems, do not place your trust in him."

Swallowing her sudden excess of saliva, Zelda opened her mouth to protest that one, he was not her friend and two, he could be trusted, but the words died in her throat. She couldn't lie to herself, she did see Link as a friend and she wanted to trust him. But the alarm bells going off in her head reminded her of all the suspicious activity regarding him recently, not to mention the fact she hardly knew anything about him.

Iglesha's electric green eyes gazed at her intently, gauging her reaction. "Perhaps it is biased of me to say so, but if my people's history with the Sheikah has taught me anything - it's that you can never trust a shadow."

Sometime later, as she lay in her sleeping bag, her stomach churning from the meal they'd cooked over the fire. She let resolve fill her as she started across the campfire where Link lay sleeping. She was going to discover the truth about him and his connection to the yiga, then she would see who she could really trust.


	8. chapter 8

Chapter 8

A/N: I’m so sorry that this took forever! I finished writing it over a week ago but then our internet went down and then I was busy taking care of our new puppy . . . Enough excuses, this one’s a doozy, we’re finally starting to get into the thick of things here.

Zelda gripped the sides of the bowl as she leaned over and heaved into the toilet. She tried to ignore her overwhelming nausea, letting her thoughts wander back to what had occurred earlier in the week. She and Link had just returned to her home after driving back from Gerudo desert . . . .

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She slumped tiredly against the door as it slammed shut behind her, wanting nothing more than to sleep for a year. She let her weary gaze slide over to Link, who was bringing her bags upstairs to her room. She couldn’t put it off any longer, she had to get to the bottom of this before anything else happened. She slipped into her office, sat behind her desk, and pulled out her laptop. She headed to Sheikah Corps.org and dived in, scouring through the website to find a trace of Link’s employment file.

She was grateful she had established with Link early one not to come into her office without her permission or safety reasons. She felt her brow furrow in frustration as her searches lead to dead-ends. Though she was impressed by the firewalls the Sheikah had, it was extremely irritating that she couldn’t get past them.

After two hours of gruesome work, her efforts were finally rewarded. She found e files on Sheikah Corps employees deep within the website. Excited, she scrolled through the various names until she found Link’s.

It looked like a copy of an actual physical document and though much of the text was blacked out, what caught her eye the most was his picture. He looked several years younger in the photo, too young to be employed, he couldn’t have been older than eleven or twelve.

Her disquiet growing by the second, she continued through his file, trying to find some semblance of his identity or history. His parents' names were blank and so was the date of his birth. His name is the same at least, she thought. Though many more among the blacked out lines were indecipherable without context, there were a few words that did bother her.

Caution: unstable

Caution: background ties to 

Allegiance: unclear  
Once she reached the ‘Occupations’ section however, her disquiet became full-on paranoia.

Shadow occupation: denied  
Warrior occupation: denied  
Bodyguard occupation: denied

Suddenly, her phone rang, startling her. Fingers trembling, she hastily picked it up and pressed it against her ear. It was from her mother.

“Hello?” She answered, of all the times her mother picked to call . . .

“I have good news, Zelda. I’ve managed to smooth things over on your behalf.”

Her voice lifted with satisfaction. “Mayor Dragmire has accepted your apology, you are allowed to return to work on Friday. On probation of course.”

The phone nearly slipped out of her hand and she couldn’t keep the surprise off her face. She could finally get back to work! But her excitement was soon followed by suspicion. She knew this was Dragmires doing, he wanted her for something (though for what she didn’t know, the Yiga weren’t exactly forthcoming) but she knew it wasn’t good.

“Zelda?” her mother prompted.

“O-Oh . . . oh yes! Thank you mother. You're always looking out for me, even when I’m not at work.” 

Seeing an opportunity to cast awareness on her mother about Ganondorf and the Yiga she continued.

“You were right to hire a bodyguard for me, there have been these criminals -”

“What bodyguard?”

Her blood ran cold, she couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to believe it, but all the evidence pointed to one blaring accusation. Whatever his ties to the Yiga were, whatever his shady background among the Sheikah was, one thing was clear- he wasn’t supposed to be here. 

The door creaked open behind her and in a flash, she had a gun pointed at Link’s bewildered face.

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t have you arrested, you stalker.”

Link held his hands up in defense, seemingly caught off guard.

“What? Zelda I don’t- “

“I read your employment file, it showed me some very interesting things. Namely that you’re not authorized to be a bodyguard.”

Link opened his mouth to speak but Zelda cut him off.

“Before you give me some excuse, just know that I received a very informative call from my mother just now.”

All traces of fight then left his face and his eyes closed, head dropping. She knew that look, she’d seen it before when she'd caught one of L.I.’s employee’s stealing corporate funds. It was the look of a guilty person who knew they’d been caught.

Countless emotions streamed through her mind as she had Link call up Impa (the head of the Sheikah agency) and give the phone to her, explaining the situation and demanding Link be removed from the premises.

She’d agreed not to press charges as long as she never saw him or their interference in her life again. She watched, drained, as Link was escorted out swiftly and firmly by a pair of intimidating looking Sheikah. She hardly listened to a Sheikah official spewing out countless apologies and assurances to her either.

Only when the car they’d come in had disappeared from sight did she go back inside, standing alone in the quiet house.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -- - -

She pulled back from the toilet bowl, shakily breathing in slightly fresher air. After a moment or two of waiting she decided that her vomiting spree had ended- for now. Sighing, she pushed herself off the bathroom floor and brushed off her clothes, searching for any sign of vomit and letting relief course through her when she found none.

She was currently at Lorule Industries, in the ninth floor restroom, trying to ease her nausea. It was her first day back at the office, her first attempt at getting back into the swing of things- and it was going poorly so far. Steeling herself, she stepped out of the restroom and was immediately assaulted by Eliza in the form of an exuberant hug.

“Zellieeeeeee! You’re back!”

“Eliza,” She managed to choke out.

“It’s been so boring without you here, our resident accordion player has been mopey without you around. Somebody’s got a crush!”

“Eliza.” She tried again.

“You were totally right about mayor Dragmire, there is something off about that guy, I can’t say what yet, but we’ll get to the bottom of it!” 

“Eliza,” She said a little louder.

“You reek, by the way, have you been bathing in the toilet recently? What have you been up to lately? Plenty of downtime I bet, you definitely look like you’ve let yourself go a bit. Mrs.Gangreene’s cooking is pretty amazing isn’t it? I could probably-”

“Eliza!” She all but shouted, hoping her friend wouldn’t notice the blush creeping up on her face. Self Consciously, she fiddled with her flowing blouse, embarrassed by her swollen stomach, which hadn’t gone away despite her best efforts.

“Alright, Alright.” Eliza gave in, “You can be the talker now- but you’re not leaving a single thing out, you hear! Tell me everything.” 

Starting out slowly, but quickly being drawn into it, Zelda began to relay her story of the past few weeks. However, when she reached the part where she met Link in the woods whilst saving her, the words became stuck in her throat. 

She couldn’t bring herself to talk about Link, the wound was still too fresh. All that effort, all that planning, it was all for nothing. The hard-won alliance with the Gerudo, escaping the Yiga ambush, Link’s betrayal- all for a shred of evidence, and yet at the end of it all, she had nothing.

The Yiga leader’s mocking words echoed in her head and suddenly she had an idea. Her infiltration of the Yiga base may have been a fruitless effort . .. .

“ . . . But it doesn’t have to be.” She murmured to the side, ignoring Eliza’s questioning expression.

Eyes flashing, she began to head down the hall, purpose in her stride. Eliza followed alongside her, looking rather caught off guard. At her friend’s bewildered look she simply said.

“I need to have a talk with my mother.”

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - -- - - -- - -- - - -- - - -

“Well this is a bit of a surprise, you know better than to interrupt me while I’m working.”

Lila Lorule gazed primly over her desk where Zelda sat erect in a chair, trying not to appear nervous.

Her mother gave her a pointed look. “I suspect this has something to do with letting Mayor Dragmire partnere with Lorule Industries?”

Zelda almost laughed, in another time and place that would have been exactly what she was asking about, but this time her questions were more . . . personal.

She decided to get straight to the point. “What do you think of me?”

Though her mother was a woman of great tact and stoicism, even she could not help but appear caught off guard by her daughter’s question. Her mother fumbled for a moment (a rare sight indeed) before collecting herself and answered, “Well, I see you as an independent, intelligent, upright woman who will always stand up for her beliefs.”

Zelda pondered this for a moment, comparing it to the Yiga leader’s words. “Lyla Lorule was always good at turning people into something they’re not.” 

She searched her memories, looking for the moments when her mother had taught her something. Independence, intelligence, standing up for her beliefs . . . . she had been taught all things but . . . What are my beliefs? What do I personally believe in, something that my mother didn’t?

She recalled a time early in her childhood when her mother had been particularly stern with her. Se had spied several homeless people huddling in the streets, their sad eyes driving her to divide up her expensive lunch among them and encourage them to meet with Eliza’s mother (a humanitarian)

Her mother had dragged her away, scolding her profusely for wasting money on hopeless cases, but most of all .. . .

“Your kindness will be the death of you, Zelda. Having compassion for insignificant people is a weakness that your enemies will exploit.”

Giving kindness freely was always a point of disagreement between her and her mother in Zelda’s youth. She’d never thought it strange because she assumed that it was normal for mother’s to tell their children that, but now that she had seen the world without looking through her mother’s tinted lenses . . . 

“Everything I am now you made me to be, mother, and I’m grateful for that, but you never let me choose to be anything for myself.”

Lyla huffed frustratedly. “I was only trying to keep you from becoming something you would regret. I’ve tried my hardest to raise you to be a great woman- and I have!”

“Kindness, generosity, love! Were those all terrible attributes to have!?”

Her mother looked ready to reprimand her as she had done many times before, but Zelda wasn’t a naive little girl anymore.

“You were trying to make me into you, but I’m not you and I never will be! You might be one of the most powerful people in Hyrule, but you lack kindness. And maybe in your eyes kindness is a weakness but to me it’s a strength, and I will never let you take that away from me again.”

Lyla’s voice was dangerously quiet as she said, “I have done my best to keep you from them, from what you will become if you choose this path. But it seems that raising you on my own wasn’t enough, you have too much of your mother in you.”

Shock coursed through her as Lyla’s words sank in. Her mother- the person she’d looked up to- aspired to be- wasn’t her real mother. Now she knew what the Yiga leader meant- he’d been working with her mother his whole time, maybe even before she was born. Her entire life was a lie. How much was real and how much was machinated by the Yiga, and by extension, Dragmire? It was all she could do to keep herself from panicking.

She distantly observed her mother- no, Lyla, answer a phone call and turn away from her. Zelda’s moment of reverie was interrupted as a young intern swung open the door in a frenzy, looking as though she’d ran here at a moment’s notice, panting heavily and her hair disheveled.

Lyla whipped around to give the intern her signature look of disapproval for interrupting her and the intern flinched and addressed Zelda, avoiding eye contact.

“It’s Milo, Miss Lorule, he wants to see you, says it’s important.”

It took Zelda a moment to respond, trying to come back to the present. “Yes . . . .yes, I’ll come.”

She followed the intern to Milo’s office, her thoughts whirling about. When she entered the little office she was appalled to see the state of the room, Milo was usually so neat and organized. Papers were strewn across the room, the desk and filing cabinets overturned and his accordion lay in pieces scattered about the office.

The man in question was leaning on the window sill, looking outside. He made no move to acknowledge her and she stood there for a few moments contemplating wether to leave or not when he finally spoke up.

“I’ve waited a long time for you, you know.”

She hesitated, unsure where he was going with this.

“From the very first time I laid eyes on you I knew I was in love with you.”

He sighed, “But you were the untouchable Zelda Lorule, who scorned every man that tried to be with you. So I waited, bided my time, poured my heart and soul into my music.You became the source of my inspiration. I filled songs with the passion I felt for you, laced my words with love and dedication and yet . . . . “

If Zela wasn’t so surprised she would’ve felt uncomfortable. Milo . . . loved her? When it came to their relationship as co-workers and friends, she had never given it a second glance. 

“My words didn’t reach your heart, you were oblivious to my affections. Every time you spoke to me, my heart ached with want for you! But alas, you have turned a blind eye, as though I was of the same caliber as all the other men before me.”

He finally turned around to face her, his face filled with longing and hurt. “For years I have serenaded you in the shadows but no longer, I must know, Zelda, will you return my love for you?”

The woman in question was rendered speechless, what could she say? Milo was her friend, but she had never seen him in that light and never would, she just couldn’t see it happening. And though his confession made her uncomfortable, she would honor their longtime friendship and try to break it gently to him.

“Milo,” she began hesitantly, “You are a great person, who deserves someone just as great as you . . .” She could barely make herself continue when she saw the hope shining in his eyes.

“But that person will never be me. I’m not the right one for you, Milo. I could never return your feelings for me and I do care about you- but only as a friend.”

He went still, his face betraying no emotion, only a brief moment of sorrow crossing his face. “I tried, Zelda.” He said quietly. “I really did. I tried to save you.”

Save her? From what? Though she tried to convince herself that these were merely the ramblings of a heartbroken man,she could not hide her growing sense of unease.

“You should have accepted my offer, you would’ve been free of them. They told me they would have spared you, I know it!”

He slumped forward as is exhausted, his eyes lifted and his blood-red agze seemed to look at and through her simultaneously. He let out a hollow laugh.

“You aren’t even aware of their existence and yet you protect them.”

Zelda felt as lost as she did when she was speaking with the yiga leader, what was he .. . . Suddenly a horrible thought made her blood run cold.

“If you will not be with me in life- I will have you in death!” 

Countless Yiga suddenly poofed into existence in billowing clouds of smoke, paper talismans flying through the air. As they advanced on her, kunai and sickles in hand, all she could think was: Milo was a Yiga?

It was too much for her to comprehend. Was everyone in her life there for an ulterior motive? Milo, Link, her own mother- . . . was Eliza a fake friend too? Was she truly alone in this world. Her entire life a set-up by the Yiga? By Ganondorf Dragmire?

Lost in her hopelessness she sank to the ground, uncaring towards the outcome of the moment. She started when she felt a warm calloused hand grasp hers, pulling her off the floor, she looked up and gaped in surprise.

There stood Link, his face hard and unforgiving as he stood between her and the Yiga. The mask-wearing ninja backed up, if only for a second, at the sight of Link fiercely brandishing his kodachi.

He took their moment of hesitation and used it to cut through the Yiga in front of the door and drag her out of the office and back down the hallway. “Link.” She breathed, trying to find the words.

A quick glance was the only acknowledgement she got before the Yiga started swarming out of every nook and cranny. He pulled out a gun from the holster at his hip and started firing at the Yiga closest to them, unfortunately the gun was knocked out of his hands by a kunai. He quickly unsheathed his kodachi again but there were too many of them and they both knew it.

As they were pressed up against a window, ten stories high, with all the exits blocked, red-clad ninja closing in on them Link turned to her and asked,

“Do you trust me?”

A thousand different responses flew through her head. You lied to me. You used me. You pretended to be my friend. Their every moment together was being replayed in her mind, her agonizing over whether they were genuine or not.

“Yes.”

His eyes filled with something sharp and bright, only to disappear under the stoic mask of a Sheikah warrior, making her question whether she’d seen it at all. He simply said, “Good.”  
He then proceeded to pick her up and jump out the window. As they began free-falling, glass shards flying through the air, Zela being overwhelmed by sheer terror, one part of her mind was coherent enough to think: Nevermind, I don’t trust him. He’s a lunatic. 

Link stuck two fingers into his mouth and whistled loudly over the sound of the roaring wind. For a moment, nothing happened as they continued falling, then, out of nowhere, a luminescent blue blur shot toward them, slicing through the air. They landed on it hard, with an audible thump.

Trying to process through her shock, she took in the sight of what they were standing on. It was a machine, made from a strange, smooth, earth colored metal, inlaid with glowing blue highlights. It was about six feet long and shaped like a Loftwing with its wings spread wide.

She gasped and clung tightly to Link as the fall to their deaths came to a sudden stop and they were lurched forward in the air.

“Plant your feet on the glider like I have, Zelda!” He shouted over the wind. “We’re getting out of here before they catch us!”

She was about to ask how anyone could follow them when they were flying through the air on a gravity-defying glider, but Link chose that moment to make the glider speed up and they raced away from Lorule industries.

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -

Zelda clung to Link’s back, her muscles growing stiff from standing in the same position, trying to fight her overwhelming nausea as the scenery zipped by. They had been flying for at least a half hour and currently high above a small rural town by the edge of Death Mountain. She was fighting back the urge to vomit when Link said, “We’re here.”

They slowly descended, making their way toward the edge of town. They stopped, hovering a few feet above the air in front of a small military bunker the size of a large shed. She stumbled off the glider and ignored Link’s hand to help her up as she regained her footing. She was still uncertain, she still didn’t know what to think of Link. 

He’d saved her from the Yiga (supposedly, a part of her mind whispered) but the truth is she hardly knew anything about him or the Sheikah and she couldn’t begin to guess what their intentions toward her were. Still, she let him guide her inside the metal bunker, which contained little else besides a small kitchen, a toilet, and several boxes stacked against the walls.

“Wait here,” he told her, “I don’t know how closely we were followed; I need to double back and report to Impa. If someone knocks, don’t let them in,”

She hated being left out, especially when it came to her own safety but she knew it was the safest option so she nodded. Then a thought occurred to her.

“Wait, how will I know if-”

“A true Sheikah knows how to get in one of our safehouses without the use of a door.” He said, guessing her question.

As he turned around and went out the door she managed to choke out, “Be safe!”

He stiffened, as though he were surprised and he turned back slightly, offering her a warm smile. “You too.” Then he was gone, locking the door shut behind him.

Time seemed to pass at a snail’s pace, and she attempted to eat some of the rations left in the boxes in an attempt to distract herself. Though she regretted it now, as her stomach was churning and she felt bloated and nauseous.

She was currently sitting on the dusty floor, back against the wall. As she replayed her and Link’s parting moment over and over in her head, she realized she wished she’d said something different. I need to apologize to him, really apologize to him. Regardless of his questionable background, he still saved my life, on multiple occasions. I’ll give him the chance to explain himself, he deserves that much at least.

She then stiffened at the feeling of eyes on the back of her head. whipping around she saw a tall, blonde Sheikah woman standing behind, a mask covering the lower half of her face, adorned in the same dark blue suit with the eye symbol on it that she had first seen Link in. Zelda awkwardly stood up and brushed herself off, attempting to make up for the fact that she looked terrible.

“You are Zelda Lorule, correct?”

At Zelda’s nod the Sheikah continued, “You are to be moved into protective custody immediately. Our chief, Impa, will explain everything to you once we safely reach the Sheikah base where you will meet.”  
This was going too fast for her. There were many questions that she wanted to ask but the first one that came to mind was, “Where is Link? He was protecting me from-”

The Sheikah interrupted, “You seem to be confused, allow me to explain.”

“I am agent Hope Shields of the Sheikah. I’m your new bodyguard.”


End file.
